Terror gripped 11-year-old Calvin Yang on Sunday as the icy, swirling water of the St. Croix River pulled him in and pummeled him.
"I thought I was going to die," he said Monday, describing what happened the day before when he slipped on a wet rock and fell into the river. "I couldn't breathe."
As he spoke, hundreds of people gathered on the rock cliffs above the river near Taylors Falls till dusk Monday to watch two rescue boats search for Calvin's uncle, Tou Hu Vang, 21, of Coon Rapids, who apparently drowned Sunday when he raced into the water to try to rescue the boy. Vang was quickly caught in the fast current, bobbed up and down a few times, and disappeared.
Another man the family did not know also raced into the river, rescued the boy and got to shore safely.
The tragedy was one of two that played out over the Memorial Day weekend on fast-running, high Minnesota rivers. Late Sunday, the body of a 14-year-old boy was recovered from the Mississippi River near Lions Levee Park in St. Paul Park a few hours after he disappeared while wading with his girlfriend. Friends and family at the scene Monday and on Facebook identified him as Dylan Thorp, a student at Oltman Middle School in St. Paul Park.
Warnings issued
The holiday weekend and hot, humid weather drew thousands of winter-weary Minnesotans to lakes, rivers and streams that are high and full of debris.
Law enforcement officials warned boaters, swimmers and anglers before and throughout the weekend that metro-area waterways are more dangerous than usual for this time of year.
Among the warnings was one about the unusually high St. Croix. Another was about high-water restrictions on Lake Minnetonka that prohibited boaters from going more than 5 miles per hour within 600 feet of shore.